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Republican People’s Party (Turkey)

64 candidates for parliament signed SPoD LGBTI’s LGBTI Rights Pledge ahead of the elections and promised to protect LGBT rights. The number of pledgers are expected to increase. 22 of the pledgers have won seats in the Parliament.

The candidates below will be entering Turkey’s 25th Parliament. They have pledged to work for LGBTI rights in Turkey.

According to the Supreme Election Committee’s official results, LGBTI activist Sedef Çakmak was not elected to the municipality council in Beşiktaş.

The Supreme Election Committee (YSK) started to release the official results of the local elections. According to the official results, none of the LGBTI activists who were candidates in the local elections won membership to the municipality council.

Though the unofficial results had revealed that Sedef Çakmak won membership to the Beşiktaş Municipality Council, she had been left outside of the council. She was in the 27th position and 26 candidates from the Republican People’s Party won seats in the Beşiktaş council.

The result that Çakmak had won a seat in the council was reported to be due to miscalculations. This means that none of the LGBTI candidates entered councils.

Who were the LGBTI candidates?

Can Çavuşoğlu had declared his mayoral candidacy for Giresun’s Bulancak municipality. He then withdrew his candidacy.

Mersin 7 Colors LGBT member Tuna Şahin was a candidate for the Yenişehir Municipality Council from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). BDP did not pass the election threshold in Yenişehir.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) lists included SPoD LGBT’s Sedef Çakmak at the 27th position in Beşiktaş and Çelik Özdemir at the 12th position in Beyoğlu. CHP placed 26 members in Beşiktaş and 10 members in Beyoğlu Municipality Councils. Therefore, neither of the candidates were elected.

Boysan Yakar, candidate in Şişli, was not shown as a candidate by the CHP and was put on the substitute list. Öykü Evren Özen was shown as a candidate for the CHP in Bursa Osmangazi. She was not elected either. Mersin Newspaper editor and LGBTI activist Baki Uguz was in the 2nd position for the Democratic Left Party (DSP) in Mezitli Municipality Council. DSP did not pass the election threshold.

5 LGBTI activists were candidates for municipality councils from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Trans activist Şevval Kılıç was in the 2nd position for Istanbul’s Şişli council, Hevi LGBTI trans activist Asya Elmas was in the 2nd position for Istanbul’s Kadıköy council, Istanbul LGBTT Association member Ebru Kırancı was in the 4th position for Istanbul’s Beyoğlu council, and trans activist Niler Albayrak, previously subjected to attacks in the Avcılar-Meis Housing Complex was in the 2nd position for Istanbul’s Avcılar council.

Pink Life LGBTT Association’s Abdülhalim Karaosmanoğlu was a candidate for Ankara’s Çankaya municipality council for the HDP. HDP could not pass the election threshold in these five places and none of the activists won seats in the councils.

Scarlett Rainbow activist Tunca Özlen was a candidate for Ankara’s Çankaya municipality council from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). TKP did not pass the election threshold.

The Youth Organization Members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) visited LGBTs and listened to their problems in Izmir. LGBT people demanded a trans parliamentarian in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.